Table Of ContentThe Project Gutenberg EBook of Cannibals all!, by George Fitzhugh
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Cannibals all!
or, Slaves without masters
Author: George Fitzhugh
Release Date: March 4, 2011 [EBook #35481]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANNIBALS ALL! ***
Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
CANNIBALS ALL!
OR,
SLAVES WITHOUT MASTERS.
BY
GEORGE FITZHUGH,
OF PORT ROYAL, CAROLINE, VA.
"His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him."—Gen. xvi. 12.
"Physician, heal thyself."—Luke iv. 23.
RICHMOND, VA.
A. MORRIS, PUBLISHER.
1857.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
ADOLPHUS MORRIS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Eastern District of Virginia.
C. H. WYNNE, PRINTER, RICHMOND.
CONTENTS.
[Pg iii]
PAGE.
Dedication
vii
Preface
ix
Introduction
xiii
CHAPTER I.
The Universal Trade
25
CHAPTER II.
Labor, Skill and Capital
33
CHAPTER III.
Subject Continued—Exploitation of Skill
58
CHAPTER IV.
International Exploitation
75
CHAPTER V.
False Philosophy of the Age
79
CHAPTER VI.
Free Trade, Fashion and Centralization
86
CHAPTER VII.
The World is Too Little Governed
97
CHAPTER VIII.
Liberty and Slavery
106
CHAPTER IX.
Paley on Exploitation
124
CHAPTER X.
Our best Witnesses and Masters in the Art of War
127
CHAPTER XI.
Decay of English Liberty, and growth of English Poor Laws
157
CHAPTER XII.
The French Laborers and the French Revolution
176
CHAPTER XIII.
The Reformation—The Right of Private Judgment
194
CHAPTER XIV.
The Nomadic Beggars and Pauper Banditti of England
204
CHAPTER XV.
"Rural Life of England,"
218
CHAPTER XVI.
The Distressed Needle-Women and Hood's Song of the Shirt
223
CHAPTER XVII.
The Edinburgh Review on Southern Slavery
236
CHAPTER XVIII.
The London Globe on West India Emancipation
274
CHAPTER XIX.
Protection, and Charity, to the Weak
278
CHAPTER XX.
The Family
281
CHAPTER XXI.
[Pg iv]
[Pg v]
Negro Slavery
294
CHAPTER XXII.
The Strength of Weakness
300
CHAPTER XXIII.
Money
303
CHAPTER XXIV.
Gerrit Smith on Land Reform, and William Loyd Garrison on No-Government
306
CHAPTER XXV.
In what Anti-Slavery ends
311
CHAPTER XXVI.
Christian Morality impracticable in Free Society—but the Natural Morality of Slave Society
316
CHAPTER XXVII.
Slavery—Its effects on the Free
320
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Private Property destroys Liberty and Equality
323
CHAPTER XXIX.
The National Era an Excellent Witness
327
CHAPTER XXX.
The Philosophy of the Isms—Shewing why they abound at the North, and are unknown at the South
332
CHAPTER XXXI.
Deficiency of Food in Free Society
335
CHAPTER XXXII.
Man has Property in Man
341
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The "Coup de Grace" to Abolition
344
CHAPTER XXXIV.
National Wealth, Individual Wealth, Luxury and economy
350
CHAPTER XXXV.
Government a thing of Force, not of Consent
353
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Warning to the North
363
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Addendum
373
DEDICATION.
TO THE HONORABLE HENRY A. WISE.
Dear Sir:
I dedicate this work to you, because I am acquainted with no one who has so zealously, laboriously and
successfully endeavored to Virginianise Virginia, by encouraging, through State legislation, her intellectual and physical
growth and development; no one who has seen so clearly the evils of centralization from without, and worked so
earnestly to cure or avert those evils, by building up centralization within.
Virginia should have her centres of Thought at her Colleges and her University, centres of Trade and Manufactures at
her Seaboard and Western towns, and centres of Fashion at her Mineral Springs.
I agree with you, too, that State strength and State independence are the best guarantees of State rights; and that
policy the wisest which most promotes the growth of State strength and independence.
[Pg vi]
[Pg vii]
[Pg viii]
Weakness invites aggression; strength commands respect; hence, the Union is safest when its separate members are
best able to repel injury, or to live independently.
Your attachment to Virginia has not lessened your love for the Union. In urging forward to completion such works as
the Covington and Ohio Road, you are trying to add to the wealth, the glory and the strength of our own State, whilst
you would add equally to the wealth, the strength and perpetuity of the Union.
I cannot commit you to all the doctrines of my book, for you will not see it until it is published.
With very great respect,
Your obedient servant,
Geo. Fitzhugh.
Port Royal, Aug. 22, 1856.
PREFACE.
I have endeavored, in this work, to treat the subjects of Liberty and Slavery in a more rigidly analytical manner than
in "Sociology for the South;" and, at the same time, to furnish the reader with abundance of facts, authorities and
admissions, whereby to test the truth of my views.
My chief aim has been to shew, that Labor makes values, and Wit exploitates and accumulates them; and hence
to deduce the conclusion that the unrestricted exploitation of so-called free society, is more oppressive to the laborer
than domestic slavery.
In making a distinct onslaught on the popular doctrines of Modern Ethics, I must share the credit or censure with my
corresponding acquaintance and friend, Professor H. of Virginia.
Our acquaintance commenced by his congratulating me, by letter, on the announcement that I was occupied with a
treatise vindicating the institution of Slavery in the abstract, and by his suggestion, that he foresaw, from what he had
read of my communications to the papers, that I should be compelled to make a general assault on the prevalent
political and moral philosophy. This letter, and others subsequent to it, together with the reception of my Book by the
Southern Public, have induced me in the present work to avow the full breadth and scope of my purpose. I am sure it
will be easier to convince the world that the customary theories of our Modern Ethical Philosophy, whether utilitarian or
sentimental, are so fallacious or so false in their premises and their deductions as to deserve rejection, than to persuade
it that the social forms under which it lives, and attempts to justify and approve, are equally erroneous, and should be
re-placed by others founded on a broader philosophical system and more Christian principles.
Yet, I believe that, under the banners of Socialism and more dangerous, because more delusive, Semi-Socialism,
society is insensibly, and often unconsciously, marching to the utter abandonment of the most essential institutions—
religion, family ties, property, and the restraints of justice. The present profession is, indeed, to stop at the half-way
house of No-Government and Free Love; but we are sure that it cannot halt and encamp in such quarters. Society will
work out erroneous doctrines to their logical consequences, and detect error only by the experience of mischief. The
world will only fall back on domestic slavery when all other social forms have failed and been exhausted. That hour may
not be far off.
Mr. H. will not see this work before its publication, and would dissent from many of its details, from the unrestricted
latitude of its positions, and from its want of precise definition. The time has not yet arrived, in my opinion, for such
precision, nor will it arrive until the present philosophy is seen to be untenable, and we begin to look about us for a
loftier and more enlightened substitute.
INTRODUCTION.
In our little work, "Sociology for the South," we said, "We may again appear in the character of writer before the
public; but we shall not intrude, and would prefer that others should finish the work which we have begun." That little
work has met, every where, we believe, at the South, with a favorable reception. No one has denied its theory of Free
Society, nor disputed the facts on which that theory rests. Very many able co-laborers have arisen, and many books
and essays are daily appearing, taking higher ground in defence of Slavery; justifying it as a normal and natural
institution, instead of excusing or apologizing for it, as an exceptional one. It is now treated as a positive good, not a
necessary evil. The success, not the ability of our essay, may have had some influence in eliciting this new mode of
defence. We have, for many years, been gradually and cautiously testing public opinion at the South, and have
ascertained that it is ready to approve, and much prefers, the highest ground of defence. We have no peculiar fitness for
[Pg ix]
[Pg x]
[Pg xi]
[Pg xii]
[Pg xiii]
[Pg xiv]
the work we are engaged in, except the confidence that we address a public predisposed to approve our doctrines,
however bold or novel. Heretofore the great difficulty in defending Slavery has arisen from the fear that the public would
take offence at assaults on its long-cherished political axioms; which, nevertheless, stood in the way of that defence. It is
now evident that those axioms have outlived their day—for no one, either North or South, has complained of our rather
ferocious assault on them—much less attempted to reply to or refute our arguments and objections. All men begin very
clearly to perceive, that the state of revolution is politically and socially abnormal and exceptional, and that the principles
that would justify it are true in the particular, false in the general. "A recurrence to fundamental principles," by an
oppressed people, is treason if it fails; the noblest of heroism if it eventuates in successful revolution. But a "frequent
recurrence to fundamental principles" is at war with the continued existence of all government, and is a doctrine fit to be
sported only by the Isms of the North and the Red Republicans of Europe. With them no principles are considered
established and sacred, nor will ever be. When, in time of revolution, society is partially disbanded, disintegrated and
dissolved, the doctrine of Human Equality may have a hearing, and may be useful in stimulating rebellion; but it is
practically impossible, and directly conflicts with all government, all separate property, and all social existence. We cite
these two examples, as instances, to shew how the wisest and best of men are sure to deduce, as general principles,
what is only true as to themselves and their peculiar circumstances. Never were people blessed with such wise and
noble Institutions as we; for they combine most that was good in those of Rome and Greece, of Judea, and of
Mediæval England. But the mischievous absurdity of our political axioms and principles quite equals the wisdom and
conservatism of our political practices. The ready appreciation by the public of such doctrines as these, encourages us
to persevere in writing. The silence of the North is far more encouraging, however, than the approbation of the South.
Piqued and taunted for two years, by many Southern Presses of high standing, to deny the proposition that Free Society
in Western Europe is a failure, and that it betrays premonitory symptoms of failure, even in America, the North is silent,
and thus tacitly admits the charge. Challenged to compare and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of our domestic
slavery with their slavery of the masses to capital and skill, it is mute, and neither accepts nor declines our challenge.
The comparative evils of Slave Society and of Free Society, of slavery to human Masters and of slavery to Capital, are
the issues which the South now presents, and which the North avoids. And she avoids them, because the Abolitionists,
the only assailants of Southern Slavery, have, we believe, to a man, asserted the entire failure of their own social system,
proposed its subversion, and suggested an approximating millenium, or some system of Free Love, Communism, or
Socialism, as a substitute.
The alarming extent of this state of public opinion, or, to speak more accurately, the absence of any public opinion,
or common faith and conviction about anything, is not dreamed of at the South, nor fully and properly realized, even at
the North. We cannot believe what is so entirely different from all our experience and observation, and they have
become familiarized and inattentive to the infected social atmosphere they continually inhale. Besides, living in the midst
of the isms, their situation is not favorable for comprehensive observation or calm generalization. More than a year
since, we made a short trip to the North, and whilst there only associated with distinguished Abolitionists. We have
corresponded much with them, before and since, and read many of their books, lectures, essays and speeches. We
have neither seen nor heard any denial by them of the failure of their own social system; but, in the contrary, found that
they all concurred in the necessity of radical social changes. 'Tis true, in conversation, they will say, "Our system of
society is bad, but yours of the South is worse; the cause of social science is advancing, and we are ready to institute a
system better than either." We could give many private anecdotes, and quote thousands of authorities, to prove that
such is the exact state of opinion with the multitudinous isms of the North. The correctness of our statement will not be
denied. If it is, any one may satisfy himself of its truth by reading any Abolition or Infidel paper at the North for a single
month. The Liberator, of Boston, their ablest paper, gives continually the fullest exposé of their opinions, and of their
wholesale destructiveness of purpose.
The neglect of the North to take issue with us, or with the Southern Press, in the new positions which we have
assumed, our own observations of the working of Northern society, the alarming increase of Socialism, as evinced by
its control of many Northern State Legislatures, and its majority in the lower house of Congress, are all new proofs of
the truth of our doctrine. The character of that majority in Congress is displayed in full relief, by the single fact, which we
saw stated in a Northern Abolition paper, that "there are a hundred Spiritual Rappers in Congress." A Northern
member of Congress made a similar remark to us a few days since. 'Tis but a copy of the Hiss Legislature of
Massachusetts, or the Praise-God-Barebones Parliament of England. Further study, too, of Western European Society,
which has been engaged in continual revolution for twenty years, has satisfied us that Free Society every where begets
isms, and that isms soon beget bloody revolutions. Until our trip to the North, we did not justly appreciate the passage
which we are about to quote from Mr. Carlyle's "Latter-Day Pamphlets." Now it seems to us as if Boston, New Haven,
or Western New York, had set for the picture:
"To rectify the relation that exists between two men, is there no method, then, but that of ending it? The
old relation has become unsuitable, obsolete, perhaps unjust; and the remedy is, abolish it; let there
henceforth be no relation at all. From the 'sacrament of marriage' downwards, human beings used to be
manifoldly related one to another, and each to all; and there was no relation among human beings, just or
unjust, that had not its grievances and its difficulties, its necessities on both sides to bear and forbear. But
henceforth, be it known, we have changed all that by favor of Heaven; the 'voluntary principle' has come up,
which will itself do the business for us; and now let a new sacrament, that of Divorce, which we call
emancipation, and spout of on our platforms, be universally the order of the day! Have men considered
whither all this is tending, and what it certainly enough betokens? Cut every human relation that has any
[Pg xv]
[Pg xvi]
[Pg xvii]
[Pg xviii]
[Pg xix]
where grown uneasy sheer asunder; reduce whatsoever was compulsory to voluntary, whatsoever was
permanent among us to the condition of the nomadic; in other words, LOOSEN BY ASSIDUOUS WEDGES, in
every joint, the whole fabrice of social existence, stone from stone, till at last, all lie now quite loose enough,
it can, as we already see in most countries, be overset by sudden outburst of revolutionary rage; and lying as
mere mountains of anarchic rubbish, solicit you to sing Fraternity, &c. over it, and rejoice in the now
remarkable era of human progress we have arrived at."
Now we plant ourselves on this passage from Carlyle. We say that, as far as it goes, 'tis a faithful picture of the isms
of the North. But the restraints of Law and Public Opinion are less at the North than in Europe. The isms on each side
the Atlantic are equally busy with "assiduous wedges," in "loosening in every joint the whole fabric of social existence;"
but whilst they dare invoke Anarchy in Europe, they dare not inaugurate New York Free Love, and Oneida Incest, and
Mormon Polygamy. The moral, religious, and social heresies of the North, are more monstrous than those of Europe.
The pupil has surpassed the master, unaided by the stimulants of poverty, hunger and nakedness, which urge the master
forward.
Society need not fail in the North-east until the whole West is settled, and a refluent population, or excess of
immigration, overstocks permanently the labor market on the Atlantic board. Till then, the despotism of skill and capital,
in forcing emigration to the West, makes proprietors of those emigrants, benefits them, peoples the West, and by their
return trade, enriches the East. The social forms of the North and the South are, for the present, equally promotive of
growth and prosperity at home, and equally beneficial to mankind at large, by affording asylums to the oppressed, and
by furnishing food and clothing to all. Northern society is a partial failure, but only because it generates isms which
threaten it with overthrow and impede its progress.
Despite of appearing vain and egotistical, we cannot refrain from mentioning another circumstance that encourages us
to write. At the very time when we were writing our pamphlet entitled "Slavery Justified," in which we took ground that
Free Society had failed, Mr. Carlyle began to write his "Latter Day Pamphlets," whose very title is the assertion of the
failure of Free Society. The proof derived from this coincidence becomes the stronger, when it is perceived that an
ordinary man on this side the Atlantic discovered and was exposing the same social phenomena that an extraordinary
one had discovered and was exposing on the other. The very titles of our works are synonymous—for the "Latter Day"
is the "Failure of Society."
Mr. Carlyle, and Miss Fanny Wright (in her England the Civilizer) vindicate Slavery by shewing that each of its
apparent relaxations in England has injured the laboring class. They were fully and ably represented in Parliament by
their ancient masters, the Barons. Since the Throne, and the Church, and the Nobility, have been stripped of their
power, and a House of Commons, representing lands and money, rules despotically, the masses have become
outlawed. They labor under all the disadvantages of slavery, and have none of the rights of slaves. This is the true
history of the English Constitution, and one which we intend, in the sequel, more fully to expound. This presents another
reason why we again appear before the public. Blackstone, which is read by most American gentlemen, teaches a
doctrine the exact reverse of this, and that doctrine we shall try to refute.
Returning from the North, we procured in New York a copy of Aristotle's "Politics and Economics." To our surprise,
we found that our theory of the origin of society was identical with his, and that we had employed not only the same
illustrations, but the very same words. We saw at once that the true vindication of slavery must be founded on his theory
of man's social nature, as opposed to Locke's theory of the Social Contract, on which latter Free Society rests for
support. 'Tis true we had broached this doctrine; but with the world at large our authority was merely repulsive, whilst
the same doctrine, coming from Aristotle, had, besides his name, two thousand years of human approval and
concurrence in its favor; for, without that concurrence and approval, his book would have long since perished.
In addition to all this, we think we have discovered that Moses has anticipated the Socialists, and that in prohibiting
"usury of money, and of victuals, and of all things that are lent on usury," and in denouncing "increase" he was far wiser
than Aristotle, and saw that other capital or property did not "breed" any more than money, and that its profits were
unjust exactions levied from the laboring man. The Socialists proclaim this as a discovery of their own. We think Moses
discovered and proclaimed it more than three thousand years ago—and that it is the only true theory of capital and
labor, the only adequate theoretical defence of Slavery—for it proves that the profits which capital exacts from labor
makes free laborers slaves, without the rights, privileges or advantages of domestic slaves, and capitalists their masters,
with all the advantages, and none of the burdens and obligations of the ordinary owners of slaves.
The scientific title of this work would be best expressed by the conventional French term "Exploitation." We
endeavor to translate by the double periphrases of "Cannibals All; or, Slaves without Masters."
We have been imprudent enough to write our Introduction first, and may fail to satisfy the expectations which we
excite. Our excess of candor must, in that event, in part supply our deficiency of ability.
CANNIBALS ALL!
[Pg xx]
[Pg xxi]
[Pg xxii]
[Pg xxiii]
[Pg xxiv]
[Pg 25]
CHAPTER I.
THE UNIVERSAL TRADE.
We are, all, North and South, engaged in the White Slave Trade, and he who succeeds best, is esteemed most
respectable. It is far more cruel than the Black Slave Trade, because it exacts more of its slaves, and neither protects
nor governs them. We boast, that it exacts more, when we say, "that the profits made from employing free labor are
greater than those from slave labor." The profits, made from free labor, are the amount of the products of such labor,
which the employer, by means of the command which capital or skill gives him, takes away, exacts or "exploitates" from
the free laborer. The profits of slave labor are that portion of the products of such labor which the power of the master
enables him to appropriate. These profits are less, because the master allows the slave to retain a larger share of the
results of his own labor, than do the employers of free labor. But we not only boast that the White Slave Trade is more
exacting and fraudulent (in fact, though not in intention,) than Black Slavery; but we also boast, that it is more cruel, in
leaving the laborer to take care of himself and family out of the pittance which skill or capital have allowed him to retain.
When the day's labor is ended, he is free, but is overburdened with the cares of family and household, which make his
freedom an empty and delusive mockery. But his employer is really free, and may enjoy the profits made by others'
labor, without a care, or a trouble, as to their well-being. The negro slave is free, too, when the labors of the day are
over, and free in mind as well as body; for the master provides food, raiment, house, fuel, and everything else necessary
to the physical well-being of himself and family. The master's labors commence just when the slave's end. No wonder
men should prefer white slavery to capital, to negro slavery, since it is more profitable, and is free from all the cares and
labors of black slave-holding.
Now, reader, it you wish to know yourself—to "descant on your own deformity"—read on. But if you would cherish
self-conceit, self-esteem, or self-appreciation, throw down our book; for we will dispel illusions which have promoted
your happiness, and shew you that what you have considered and practiced as virtue, is little better than moral
Cannibalism. But you will find yourself in numerous and respectable company; for all good and respectable people are
"Cannibals all," who do not labor, or who are successfully trying to live without labor, on the unrequited labor of other
people:—Whilst low, bad, and disreputable people, are those who labor to support themselves, and to support said
respectable people besides. Throwing the negro slaves out of the account, and society is divided in Christendom into
four classes: The rich, or independent respectable people, who live well and labor not at all; the professional and skillful
respectable people, who do a little light work, for enormous wages; the poor hard-working people, who support every
body, and starve themselves; and the poor thieves, swindlers and sturdy beggars, who live like gentlemen, without
labor, on the labor of other people. The gentlemen exploitate, which being done on a large scale, and requiring a great
many victims, is highly respectable—whilst the rogues and beggars take so little from others, that they fare little better
than those who labor.
But, reader, we do not wish to fire into the flock. "Thou art the man!" You are a Cannibal! and if a successful one,
pride yourself on the number of your victims, quite as much as any Feejee chieftain, who breakfasts, dines and sups on
human flesh.—And your conscience smites you, if you have failed to succeed, quite as much as his, when he returns
from an unsuccessful foray.
Probably, you are a lawyer, or a merchant, or a doctor, who have made by your business fifty thousand dollars, and
retired to live on your capital. But, mark! not to spend your capital. That would be vulgar, disreputable, criminal. That
would be, to live by your own labor; for your capital is your amassed labor. That would be, to do as common working
men do; for they take the pittance which their employees leave them, to live on. They live by labor; for they exchange
the results of their own labor for the products of other people's labor. It is, no doubt, an honest, vulgar way of living; but
not at all a respectable way. The respectable way of living is, to make other people work for you, and to pay them
nothing for so doing—and to have no concern about them after their work is done. Hence, white slave-holding is much
more respectable than negro slavery—for the master works nearly as hard for the negro, as he for the master. But you,
my virtuous, respectable reader, exact three thousand dollars per annum from white labor, (for your income is the
product of white labor,) and make not one cent of return in any form. You retain your capital, and never labor, and yet
live in luxury on the labor of others. Capital commands labor, as the master does the slave. Neither pays for labor; but
the master permits the slave to retain a larger allowance from the proceeds of his own labor, and hence "free labor is
cheaper than slave labor." You, with the command over labor which your capital gives you, are a slave owner—a
master, without the obligations of a master. They who work for you, who create your income, are slaves, without the
rights of slaves. Slaves without a master! Whilst you were engaged in amassing your capital, in seeking to become
independent, you were in the White Slave Trade. To become independent, is to be able to make other people support
you, without being obliged to labor for them. Now, what man in society is not seeking to attain this situation? He who
attains it, is a slave owner, in the worst sense. He who is in pursuit of it, is engaged in the slave trade. You, reader,
belong to the one or other class. The men without property, in free society, are theoretically in a worse condition than
slaves. Practically, their condition corresponds with this theory, as history and statistics every where demonstrate. The
capitalists, in free society, live in ten times the luxury and show that Southern masters do, because the slaves to capital
work harder and cost less, than negro slaves.
The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and
the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy
[Pg 26]
[Pg 27]
[Pg 28]
[Pg 29]
[Pg 30]
liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from
the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good
weather, not more than nine hours a day. The balance of their time is spent in perfect abandon. Besides, they have their
Sabbaths and holidays. White men, with so much of license and liberty, would die of ennui; but negroes luxuriate in
corporeal and mental repose. With their faces upturned to the sun, they can sleep at any hour; and quiet sleep is the
greatest of human enjoyments. "Blessed be the man who invented sleep." 'Tis happiness in itself—and results from
contentment with the present, and confident assurance of the future. We do not know whether free laborers ever sleep.
They are fools to do so; for, whilst they sleep, the wily and watchful capitalist is devising means to ensnare and
exploitate them. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the negro, because he works longer
and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when its labors
end. He has no liberty, and not a single right. We know, 'tis often said, air and water, are common property, which all
have equal right to participate and enjoy; but this is utterly false. The appropriation of the lands carries with it the
appropriation of all on or above the lands, usque ad cœlum, aut ad inferos. A man cannot breathe the air, without a
place to breathe it from, and all places are appropriated. All water is private property "to the middle of the stream,"
except the ocean, and that is not fit to drink.
Free laborers have not a thousandth part of the rights and liberties of negro slaves. Indeed, they have not a single
right or a single liberty, unless it be the right or liberty to die. But the reader may think that he and other capitalists and
employers are freer than negro slaves. Your capital would soon vanish, if you dared indulge in the liberty and abandon
of negroes. You hold your wealth and position by the tenure of constant watchfulness, care and circumspection. You
never labor; but you are never free.
Where a few own the soil, they have unlimited power over the balance of society, until domestic slavery comes in, to
compel them to permit this balance of society to draw a sufficient and comfortable living from "terra mater." Free
society, asserts the right of a few to the earth—slavery, maintains that it belongs, in different degrees, to all.
But, reader, well may you follow the slave trade. It is the only trade worth following, and slaves the only property
worth owning. All other is worthless, a mere caput mortuum, except in so far as it vests the owner with the power to
command the labors of others—to enslave them. Give you a palace, ten thousand acres of land, sumptuous clothes,
equipage and every other luxury; and with your artificial wants, you are poorer than Robinson Crusoe, or the lowest
working man, if you have no slaves to capital, or domestic slaves. Your capital will not bring you an income of a cent,
nor supply one of your wants, without labor. Labor is indispensable to give value to property, and if you owned every
thing else, and did not own labor, you would be poor. But fifty thousand dollars means, and is, fifty thousand dollars
worth of slaves. You can command, without touching on that capital, three thousand dollars' worth of labor per annum.
You could do no more were you to buy slaves with it, and then you would be cumbered with the cares of governing
and providing for them. You are a slaveholder now, to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, with all the advantages, and
none of the cares and responsibilities of a master.
"Property in man" is what all are struggling to obtain. Why should they not be obliged to take care of man, their
property, as they do of their horses and their hounds, their cattle and their sheep. Now, under the delusive name of
liberty, you work him, "from morn to dewy eve"—from infancy to old age—then turn him out to starve. You treat your
horses and hounds better. Capital is a cruel master. The free slave trade, the commonest, yet the cruellest of trades.
CHAPTER II.
LABOR, SKILL AND CAPITAL.
Nothing written on the subject of slavery from the time of Aristotle, is worth reading, until the days of the modern
Socialists. Nobody, treating of it, thought it worth while to enquire from history and statistics, whether the physical and
moral condition of emancipated serfs or slaves had been improved or rendered worse by emancipation. None would
condescend to compare the evils of domestic slavery with the evils of liberty without property. It entered no one's head
to conceive a doubt as to the actual freedom of the emancipated. The relations of capital and labor, of the property-
holders to the non-property-holders, were things about which no one had thought or written. It never occurred to either
the enemies or the apologists for slavery, that if no one would employ the free laborer, his condition was infinitely worse
than that of actual slavery—nor did it occur to them, that if his wages were less than the allowance of the slave, he was
less free after emancipation than before. St. Simon, Fourier, Owen, Fanny Wright, and a few others, who discovered
and proclaimed that property was not only a bad master, but an intolerable one, were treated as wicked visionaries.
After the French and other revolutions in Western Europe in 1830, all men suddenly discovered that the social relations
of men were false, and that social, not political, revolutions were needed. Since that period, almost the whole literature
of free society is but a voice proclaiming its absolute and total failure. Hence the works of the socialists contain the true
defence of slavery.
Most of the active intellect of Christendom has for the last twenty years been engaged in analyzing, detecting and
exposing the existing relations of labor, skill and capital, and in vain efforts to rectify those relations. The philosophers of
[Pg 30]
[Pg 31]
[Pg 32]
[Pg 33]
[Pg 34]
Europe, who have been thus engaged, have excelled all the moral philosophers that preceded them, in the former part
of their pursuit, but suggested nothing but puerile absurdities, in the latter. Their destructive philosophy is profound,
demonstrative, and unanswerable—their constructive theories, wild, visionary and chimerical on paper, and failures in
practice. Each one of them proves clearly enough, that the present edifice of European society is out of all rule and
proportion, and must soon tumble to pieces—but no two agree as to how it is to be re-built. "We must (say they all)
have a new world, if we are to have any world at all!" and each has a little model Utopia or Phalanstery, for this new
and better world, which, having already failed on a small experimental scale, the inventor assures us, is, therefore, the
very thing to succeed on a large one. We allude to the socialists and communists, who have more or less tinged all
modern literature with their doctrines. In analyzing society; in detecting, exposing, and generalizing its operations and its
various phenomena, they are but grammarians or anatomists, confining philosophy to its proper sphere, and employing it
for useful purposes. When they attempt to go further—and having found the present social system to be fatally
diseased, propose to originate and build up another in its stead—they are as presumptuous as the anatomist, who
should attempt to create a man. Social bodies, like human bodies, are the works of God, which man may dissect, and
sometimes heal, but which he cannot create. Society was not always thus diseased, or socialism would have been as
common in the past as it is now. We think these presumptuous philosophers had best compare it in its healthy state with
what it is now, and supply deficiencies or lop off excrescencies, as the comparison may suggest. But our present
business is to call attention to some valuable discoveries in the terra firma of social science, which these socialists have
made in their vain voyages in search of an ever receding and illusory Utopia. Like the alchymists, although they have
signally failed in the objects of their pursuits, they have incidentally hit upon truths, unregarded and unprized by
themselves, which will be valuable in the hands of more practical and less sanguine men. It is remarkable, that the
political economists, who generally assume labor to be the most just and correct measure of value, should not have
discovered that the profits of capital represent no labor at all. To be consistent, the political economists should
denounce as unjust all interests, rents, dividends and other profits of capital. We mean by rents, that portion of the rent
which is strictly income. The amount annually required for repairs and ultimately to rebuild the house, is not profit. Four
per cent. will do this. A rent of ten per cent. is in such case a profit of six per cent. The four per cent. is but a return to
the builder of his labor and capital spent in building. "The use of a thing, is only a fair subject of change, in so far as the
article used is consumed in the use; for such consumption is the consumption of the labor or capital of the owner, and is
but the exchange of equivalent amounts of labor."
These socialists, having discovered that skill and capital, by means of free competition, exercise an undue mastery
over labor, propose to do away with skill, capital, and free competition, altogether. They would heal the diseases of
society by destroying its most vital functions. Having laid down the broad proposition, that equal amounts of labor, or
their results, should be exchanged for each other, they get at the conclusion that as the profits of capital are not the
results of labor, the capitalist shall be denied all interest or rents, or other profits on his capital, and be compelled in all
cases to exchange a part of the capital itself, for labor, or its results. This would prevent accumulation, or at least limit it
to the procurement of the coarsest necessaries of life. They say, "the lawyer and the artist do not work so hard and
continuously as the ploughman, and should receive less wages than he—a bushel of wheat represents as much labor as
a speech or portrait, and should be exchanged for the one or the other." Such a system of trade and exchange would
equalize conditions, but would banish civilization. Yet do these men show, that, by means of the taxation and
oppression, which capital and skill exercise over labor, the rich, the professional, the trading and skillful part of society,
have become the masters of the laboring masses: whose condition, already intolerable, is daily becoming worse. They
point out distinctly the character of the disease under which the patient is laboring, but see no way of curing the disease
except by killing the patient.
In the preceding chapter, we illustrated their theory of capital by a single example. We might give hundreds of
illustrations, and yet the subject is so difficult that few readers will take the trouble to understand it. Let us take two well
known historical instances: England became possessed of two fine islands, Ireland and Jamaica. Englishmen took away,
or defrauded, from the Irish, their lands; but professed to leave the people free. The people, however, must have the
use of land, or starve. The English charged them, in rent, so much, that their allowance, after deducting that rent, was
not half that of Jamaica slaves. They were compelled to labor for their landlords, by the fear of hunger and death—
forces stronger than the overseer's lash. They worked more, and did not get half so much pay or allowance as the
Jamaica negroes. All the reports to the French and British Parliaments show that the physical wants of the West India
slaves were well supplied. The Irish became the subjects of capital—slaves, with no masters obliged by law, self-
interest or domestic affections, to provide for them. The freest people in the world, in the loose and common sense of
words, their condition, moral, physical and religious, was far worse than that of civilized slaves ever has been or ever
can be—for at length, after centuries of slow starvation, three hundred thousand perished in a single season, for want of
food. Englishmen took the lands of Jamaica also, but introduced negro slaves, whom they were compelled to support at
all seasons, and at any cost. The negroes were comfortable, until philanthropy taxed the poor of England and Ireland a
hundred millions to free them. Now, they enjoy Irish liberty, whilst the English hold all the good lands. They are destitute
and savage, and in all respects worse off than when in slavery.
Public opinion unites with self-interest, domestic affection and municipal law to protect the slave. The man who
maltreats the weak and dependant, who abuses his authority over wife, children or slaves, is universally detested. That
same public opinion, which shields and protects the slave, encourages the oppression of free laborers—for it is
considered more honorable and praiseworthy to obtain large fees than small ones, to make good bargains than bad
ones, (and all fees and profits come ultimately from common laborers)—to live without work, by the exactions of
[Pg 35]
[Pg 36]
[Pg 37]
[Pg 38]
[Pg 39]
accumulated capital, than to labor at the plough or the spade, for one's living. It is the interest of the capitalist and the
skillful to allow free laborers the least possible portion of the fruits of their own labor; for all capital is created by labor,
and the smaller the allowance of the free laborer, the greater the gains of his employer. To treat free laborers badly and
unfairly, is universally inculcated as a moral duty, and the selfishness of man's nature prompts him to the most rigorous
performance of this cannibalish duty. We appeal to political economy; the ethical, social, political and economic
philosophy of free society, to prove the truth of our doctrines. As an ethical and social guide, that philosophy teaches,
that social, individual and national competition, is a moral duty, and we have attempted to prove that all competition is
but the effort to enslave others, without being encumbered with their support. As a political guide, it would simply have
government 'keep the peace;' or, to define its doctrine more exactly, it teaches "that it is the whole duty of government
to hold the weak whilst the strong rob them"—for it punishes crimes accompanied with force, which none but the
weak-minded commit; but encourages the war of the wits, in which the strong and astute are sure to succeed, in
stripping the weak and ignorant.
It is time, high time, that political economy was banished from our schools. But what would this avail in free society,
where men's antagonistic relations suggest to each one, without a teacher, that "he can only be just to himself, by doing
wrong to others." Aristotle, and most other ancient philosophers and statesmen, held the doctrine, "that as money would
not breed, interest should not be allowed." Moses, no doubt, saw as the modern socialists do, that all other capital
stood on the same grounds with money. None of it is self-creative, or will "breed." The language employed about
"usury" and "increase" in 25th Leviticus, and 23d Deuteronomy, is quite broad enough to embrace and prohibit all
profits of capital. Such interest or "increase," or profits, might be charged to the Heathen, but not to the Jews. The
whole arrangements of Moses were obviously intended to prevent competition in the dealings of the Jews with one
another, and to beget permanent equality of condition and fraternal feelings.
The socialists have done one great good. They enable us to understand and appreciate the institutions of Moses, and
to see, that none but Divinity could have originated them.[1] The situation of Judea was, in many respects, anomalous,
and we are not to suppose that its political and social relations were intended to be universal. Yet, here it is distinctly
asserted, that under certain circumstances, all profits on capital are wrong.
The reformers of the present day are all teetotalists, and attempt to banish evil altogether, not
to lessen or restrict it. It would be wiser to assume that there is nothing, in its essence, evil, in the moral or physical
world, but only rendered so by the wrongful applications which men make of them. Science is every day discovering
that the most fatal poisons, when properly employed, become the most efficacious medicines. So, what appear to be
the evil passions and propensities of men, and of societies, under proper regulation, may be made to minister to the
wisest and best of purposes. Civilized society has never been found without that competition begotten by man's desire
to throw most of the burdens of life on others, and to enjoy the fruits of their labors without exchanging equivalent labor
of his own. In all such societies, (outside the Bible,) such selfish and grasping appropriation is inculcated as a moral
duty; and he who succeeds best, either by the exercise of professional skill, or by accumulation of capital, in
appropriating the labor of others, without laboring in return, is considered most meritorious. It would be unfair, in
treating of the relations of capital and labor, not to consider its poor-house system, the ultimate resort of the poor.
The taxes or poor rates which support this system of relief, like all other taxes and values, are derived from the labor
of the poor. The able-bodied, industrious poor are compelled by the rich and skillful to support the weak, and too
often, the idle poor. In addition to defraying the necessary expenses and the wanton luxuries of the rich, to supporting
government, and supporting themselves, capital compels them to support its poor houses. In collection of the poor
rates, in their distribution, and in the administration of the poor-house system, probably half the tax raised for the poor is
exhausted. Of the remainder, possibly another half is expended on unworthy objects. Masters, in like manner, support
the sick, infant and aged slaves from the labor of the strong and healthy. But nothing is wasted in collection and
administration, and nothing given to unworthy objects. The master having the control of the objects of his bounty, takes
care that they shall not become burdensome by their own crimes and idleness. It is contrary to all human customs and
legal analogies, that those who are dependent, or are likely to become so, should not be controlled. The duty of
protecting the weak involves the necessity of enslaving them—hence, in all countries, women and children, wards and
apprentices, have been essentially slaves, controlled, not by law, but by the will of a superior. This is a fatal defect in the
poor-house system. Many men become paupers from their own improvidence or misconduct, and masters alone can
prevent such misconduct and improvidence. Masters treat their sick, infant and helpless slaves well, not only from
feeling and affection, but from motives of self-interest. Good treatment renders them more valuable. All poor houses,
are administered on the penitentiary system, in order to deter the poor from resorting to them. Besides, masters are
always in place to render needful aid to the unfortunate and helpless slaves. Thousands of the poor starve out of reach
of the poor house, or other public charity.
A common charge preferred against slavery is, that it induces idleness with the masters. The trouble, care and labor,
of providing for wife, children and slaves, and of properly governing and administering the whole affairs of the farm, is
usually borne on small estates by the master. On larger ones, he is aided by an overseer or manager. If they do their
duty, their time is fully occupied. If they do not, the estate goes to ruin. The mistress, on Southern farms, is usually more
busily, usefully and benevolently occupied than any one on the farm. She unites in her person, the offices of wife,
mother, mistress, housekeeper, and sister of charity. And she fulfills all these offices admirably well. The rich men, in
free society, may, if they please, lounge about town, visit clubs, attend the theatre, and have no other trouble than that of
[Pg 40]
[Pg 41]
[Pg 42]
[Pg 43]
[Pg 44]
collecting rents, interest and dividends of stock. In a well constituted slave society, there should be no idlers. But we
cannot divine how the capitalists in free society are to be put to work. The master labors for the slave, they exchange
industrial value. But the capitalist, living on his income, gives nothing to his subjects. He lives by mere exploitation.
It is objected that slavery permits or induces immorality and ignorance. This is a mistake. The intercourse of the
house-servants with the white family, assimilates, in some degree, their state of information, and their moral conduct, to
that of the whites. The house-servants, by their intercourse with the field hands, impart their knowle...
